Sooners Display Resilience in Manhattan

NORMAN, Okla. -- If this is the shape of things to come, Oklahoma likes the shape it's in.

Early struggles at Kansas State could foreshadow more difficulties for the second-ranked Sooners, whose hopes of making it back to the Big 12 title game rest on two upcoming road games against ranked opponents.

They hope their response to trailing for the first time in three conference outings proves something, too.

Oklahoma trailed Kansas State three times on Saturday, before two of Jason White's four touchdown passes lifted the Sooners to a 31-21 victory that kept them unbeaten and tied with Texas A&M for the Big 12 South lead.

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Still ahead: key road matchups against No. 22 Oklahoma State on Oct. 20 and the 17th-ranked Aggies on Nov. 6,

"This was a really big win," said linebacker Rufus Alexander, who set up White's first touchdown pass with a sack, strip and recovery in Oklahoma territory with the Sooners down 7-0 in the first quarter. "It shows that we fight back and we never give up."

That's the positive side. But Saturday's game also showed that the Sooners' defense, although tough on opposing runners, has vulnerable seams in its zone passing coverage.

All-America running back Darren Sproles, who rushed for 235 yards to help Kansas State stun then-No. 1 Oklahoma 35-7 in last year's Big 12 title game, was held to 34 yards and one score on 13 carries Saturday.

One of those carries was a botched halfback pass attempt that Sproles wasn't able to get off before being tackled.

But sophomore Dylan Meier, despite heavy blitz pressure that eventually knocked him out of the game in the fourth quarter, passed for 242 yards and a touchdown and had several passes dropped by open receivers.

"We had a little success to begin with. It got us some points on the board, so that's how we had to go," Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said. "It wasn't necessarily our idea all week to come in and pass it that much."

The Wildcats are 0-3 in Big 12 play and 2-4 overall for the first time since 2001. But several times on Saturday, they appeared poised to upset the Sooners (6-0, 3-0) for a second straight year.

"When you play Oklahoma, you'd better play for 60 minutes," Snyder said. "We did some good things on defense, some good things on offense and in the kicking game -- but we didn't do them for 60 minutes. It's that simple.

"We're just not good enough for 60 minutes right now, in any facet of what we do," he said. "But that doesn't preclude that we could be."

Kansas State took its last lead, 21-17, with just under 10 minutes left in the third quarter on Brandon Archer's 27-yard interception return.

The play was almost identical -- down to the distance -- to Ted Sims' interception and TD return for Kansas State's final score in last year's Big 12 title game.

But this game belonged to White, who put the Sooners back ahead -- this time for good -- with two touchdown passes to Mark Clayton. He also threw two TDs to Travis Wilson in the first half, when Oklahoma came back from deficits of 7-0 and 14-7 to lead 17-14 at the break.

Freshman Adrian Peterson, held to 26 yards in the first half, sealed the Sooners' win by rushing for 64 of his 130 yards in the fourth quarter.

"He was great," White said. "He got stopped most of the first and second quarters, but he kept running and got rewarded for it."